The Morning After
by Jet Wolf
Summary: If Rei didn't want to be cuddled, she shouldn't be so cuddly.


**Standard Disclaimer:** The characters aren't mine. This should come as no surprise. I am simply a teller of stories that occasionally claw their way desperately out of my head.

**Notes:** I was liveblogging Episode 105 and talking about the sleepover scene. sailorsinmyheart said "Try putting Minako to bed next to Rei and the next morning when Rei wakes up and finds herself being cuddled by Minako. That would make quite a scene. Now Jet Wolf needs to write this for me. You will, right Jet Wolf?" Then oops, guess what happened. Also I probably shouldn't write 'fic at 2am with almost 24 hours of no sleep.

_(5 February 2013)_

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**The Morning After**

Everything was warm. Warm and soft. And kind of ridiculously comfy. Consciousness was beginning to intrude. Rei kicked it away viciously. She wasn't a morning person at the best of times, and this despite normally being up at dawn to get the first round of chores done around the shrine before school.

Was there school? Did chores need to be done?

A quick check with her internal clock said "no" on both counts and that was good enough. Rei's sigh was deep and contented, and she snuggled back into her pillow. Her blankets had somehow gotten bunched behind her, but it was a warm bundle of support so she left them where they were. Rei wasn't exactly a quiet sleeper so waking up to covers half-off wasn't new. They'd never wound up quite so packed behind her before though. Weird.

But comfortable, so whatever.

Rei shifted, trying to chase sleep down, but her brain kept nudging at her, distracting her from this very important task of complete unconsciousness. Stupid brain. Couldn't she just be hugged in peace?

Hmph. Apparently not.

Inarticulate but persistent prickles continued to hover around all of Rei's many edges. It felt like a vision was looming, which was just rarely good news for anyone.

Wait, hugged?

Details began to materialize.

Terrible, horrible details.

That weight around her middle. Way too heavy to be a blanket. Also blankets didn't squeeze. Was this squeezing? Rei waited a moment. It happened again. Squeezing was confirmed.

The extra leg she must've grown in the night. Because okay, yes, that was definitely her own foot. And there was without question something draped over the leg attached to that foot. Now here's her other foot, reporting for duty. Fearing the answer, but determined to know, Rei sent that foot on a recon mission. It didn't have far to go. Conclusion: third foot.

Oh and okay, so then that's not a draft against the back of her neck.

It's breathing.

A scream ripped from Rei's throat, and she launched herself upright, nearly tripping over the tangled mess of limbs that she had become.

This outburst had numerous effects.

Usagi reacted the fastest, which was a bet Rei would have lost, had this been a situation she would ever in any faintest part of reality have bet on. The moment Rei began to scream, Usagi was 100% awake, 100% confused, and 100% screaming, matching Rei's pitch with a precision that would have done any choir proud. Her eyes were approximately the size of satellite dishes, and looking around at everyone and everything with complete incomprehension. Never once did her screaming falter. Usagi had awoken to this day with screaming on her agenda and she was committed.

From the kitchen there was a loud bang, followed by a string of curses that would have made the oldest, saltiest sailor in history suggest toning it down a little. Makoto's zen of cooking had been interrupted. If someone wasn't dying, somebody would be soon.

Ami was so startled she lost her page in the book she was reading. It was a tense few seconds, but she quickly recovered her place. All was well.

But there was one more person to be accounted for, and that person mostly just pouted and said, "You woke me up." This was, all things considered, not the wisest act of contrition.

"MINAKO!" Rei growled, threatening to turn the name into a full-fledged curse. She could probably really do it, too. People had been saying for years she could throw curses and by the kamis it was time to prove every last one of them right.

Minako only reached out. "Come back to bed."

Rei screamed again. Usagi, who had embraced silence for a few merciful seconds, answered the call and lent her voice to Rei's. Only this time it was a weak and puzzled thing. Less "AAAAAAHHH!" and more "aaahh?" But the spirit of cooperation was there, and some part of Usagi congratulated herself on teamwork.

"Oh WHAT?" Minako said, flopping onto her back and throwing her arms wide, staking full claim on both her sleeping area and Rei's. "If you didn't want to cuddle, you shouldn't be so cuddly."

From the doorway came a choked laugh. Makoto had entered the room expecting to find dismembered bodies and blood on the ceiling. Which might still happen. But until then it was The Rei and Minako Comedy Hour, and damn if that wasn't one of Mako's favourite shows.

Surging forward, Rei puffed up like some desert lizard. (Minako seriously thought Rei's hair expanded to twice its regular volume and was fascinated.) "I. Am not. CUDDLY!" she spat.

Minako tilted her head, an altogether unnecessary act given that she was lying down. She peered up at Rei, who was looming over her and breathing so audibly she sounded like a Lamaze instructor. "I have several hours of cuddling you that says otherwise."

Rei kicked her pillow – yes, the pillow was what she had certainly been aiming for, and not that stupid blonde stupid head full of stupid – and smiled as it landed dead center of Minako's face. With a triumphant toss of her mane, Rei strode from the room. It was a victory walk. For she had won. Oh yes. Nobody would ever say differently. Or speak on this day again. Ever.

"I think you hurt my nose!" Minako said from somewhere under the pillow. She crawled to her feet and scrambled after Rei. "Kiss it and make it better?"

It sounded like there was more screaming happening somewhere, but that somewhere was not here, so Usagi and Mako converged on Ami, who continued to read contentedly from her book.

Mako chuckled and shook her head. "Minako's gonna push her too far one of these days."

"You'd think so, but we're pushing pretty hard and haven't gotten there yet," Usagi replied. At Mako's raised eyebrow she added, "We compare notes. Pet project."

Mako nodded and opened her mouth in a silent "ahhh".

"Wish I'd seen the cuddle though." Usagi looked at the spot where today's drama began and sighed wistfully. "It sounded really cute."

"It was," Ami agreed, and produced a cell phone from nowhere. Without looking up from her book, she put the phone on the table and spun it toward Usagi. "Check the pictures."

Usagi and Mako exchanged a look that lasted all of a quarter of a second before Usagi scrambled for the phone like it was a leprechaun that might vanish any second, taking with it sweet, sweet treasure. Mako nearly fell over Ami in her rush to stand over Usagi's shoulder to see.

Sure enough, the first picture was of Rei and Minako, deep in the throes of what could only be labeled "cuddling". They were both dead to the world, and in the middle of their sleep, Minako had wrapped herself around Rei like those pictures of baby sloths and teddy bears. Rei for her part was wearing a smile so content that she almost looked like The Good Rei from some parallel universe.

Mako and Usagi simultaneously made a high pitched noise best described as "oh!"

While Usagi continued to fawn over the picture, wondering to herself if there was any way to have it printed out in a wallet size that she could keep with her every day for always, Mako glanced at Ami. Ami, who hadn't once looked up from her textbook.

"Why'd you take this?" Mako asked.

"Why WOULDN'T you?" replied Usagi, zooming in to properly digest every single adorable pixel.

Ami continued reading. "Minako asked me to. She promised a week of uninterrupted study time if I could get a good picture."

Usagi and Mako gaped at Ami, the photo temporarily forgotten. Ami glanced up then, looking at them for the first time. Her expression remained neutral.

"I will get you through high school entrance exams, even if you have to kill each other to do it."


End file.
